Carding
Sorting raw fleece
After sorting the fleece and discarding all dirty bits, I hand-wash it in warm water using Dr. Bronner's liquid soap.
I then put portions of the fleece into pillow cases and spin-dry it in the washing machine.
The fleece is laid out on a wire mesh and air dried outside.
Carding is like combing small pieces of washed fleece. The carded fleece collects on the large drum. When the drum is full the combed fleece is taken of the drum and is called a batt.
Here I use a Louet carder.
The batts are now spun into yarn. Here I use a traditional wheel of unknown origin, which I borrowed from a friend.
In August 2015 I bought a Ashford Traveller wheel with two treadles, which is easier on the legs, and small enough to carry around.
On the right you can see a small piece of washed fleece.
Next to it you see the carded fleece called batts.
The batts (made from Mule) are now ready to use for felting, spinning, weaving or stuffing.
Spinning
Before and after carding
Sheep to Shop
Below you can follow the pictures to see how I process the raw fleece into hand-spun yarn.
All fleeces are purchased from local Devon farms and each step is worked by hand.
At this moment I use fleeces from different breeds: Exmorr Horn - Jacob - Mule - Texel - Romney - cross breeds
Hand-spun Yarn
in natural colours
After spinning I make the yarn into hanks and are washed again to ease out any twists.
Here you can see the washed hanks drying outside.
The silver-grey yarn is made from Mule sheep and the white yarn is made from the Texel/Hampshire/Romney sheep.
The yarn is now ready for knitting, crochet, weaving, dying and all sorts of other crafts.